Los Angeles Soap Co

Although Ivory Soap generally is conceded to be the soap that gave American housewives soft skin, Los Angeles' own "house" brand, White King D, offered homemakers much more--cleaner clothes. The words "White King" once had a magic ring, and it wasn't around the collar. Young Angelenos in the late 1940s and early '50s wouldn't dare miss an episode of "Chandu the Magician," the radio serial that plugged White King for its manufacturer and the show's sponsor, the Los Angeles Soap Co.

Although Ivory Soap generally is conceded to be the soap that gave American housewives soft skin, Los Angeles' own "house" brand, White King D, offered homemakers much more--cleaner clothes. The words "White King" once had a magic ring, and it wasn't around the collar. Young Angelenos in the late 1940s and early '50s wouldn't dare miss an episode of "Chandu the Magician," the radio serial that plugged White King for its manufacturer and the show's sponsor, the Los Angeles Soap Co.

Los Angeles Soap Co. has sold the eight acres of downtown land that housed its 127-year-old soap-making operations to Banning Associates, a joint venture between the City Center Group of Companies and Independence Bank. The sales price was not disclosed, but sources value the deal at about $35 million. Escrow is expected to close in May. Malcolm Kingston, chairman of the City Center Group, said Santa Monica-based Landau Partnership has been retained to create a mixed-use complex on the site.

The year was 1860. By the time it ended, Abraham Lincoln would be elected President and the nation would march closer to civil war. On the other side of the country, a young rancher was trying to clean up the dusty pueblo known as Los Angeles. 1860 was when 17-year-old John Forthmann started Los Angeles Soap Co., which this year celebrates its 125th year of saponification--the sometimes fine art of making soap.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the $43-million purchase of a 10-acre parcel downtown for use as a surface parking lot. The property at the northeast corner of Alameda and 1st streets, the site of the former Los Angeles Soap Co. plant, had been entitled for commercial and residential uses. Atlanta-based Trammell Crow Residential negotiated to buy the land to build up to 600 units of housing, but discussions were terminated after the city made its offer to buy the site.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has responsibility for controlling air pollution in the area. It has the power to seek court-imposed fines against polluters of from $25 to $25,000 a day, based on such factors as the extent that emissions exceed legal limits, the potential danger to the public, whether the violation was intentional or accidental and the company's history of violations. These are the 10 highest penalties paid in July: COMPANY TYPE OF BUSINESS PENALTY Northrop Corp.

Rowland Dale Weber III, 55, scion of the Weber Baking Co. and a food industry executive. He was the grandson of R. Dale Weber Sr., who in 1908 founded the baking company, which later became part of Interstate Bakeries. The younger Weber earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Redlands and a master's in business administration at USC. He worked his way up as a food and home products executive. In 1975, he became president of Van de Kamp's Los Angeles, which was later sold.

After decades of proudly touting itself as one of the city's oldest companies, Los Angeles Soap Co.--whose White King label was a California household staple for more than a century--is quietly winding down its 127-year-old operation and preparing to slip out of business. In a letter sent to shareholders earlier this month, Andrew K. Forthmann Sr.

One day in 2005, nearly half the business of the last major soap factory in Los Angeles suddenly went down the drain. Shugar Soapworks Inc. made private-label soaps for hotels and retailers at its South Los Angeles plant. If you stayed in a high-end hotel in Las Vegas, odds were that the individually wrapped soaps in the bathroom were made there. "We had hotels with 4,000 rooms and 95% occupancy," owner Dan Shugar said. "That's a lot of soap."

The big stone needed a little rocking. So the homeless man gently nudged it left and right, and then front to back. The basketball-size hunk of granite seesawed for a moment before coming to a stop--perfectly balanced on top of a delicately stacked pile of stones. Fernando Anglero carefully pulled away his hands and slowly stepped back. "It gives me such pleasure when I find the center," he said. "It brings me peace."